ON THIS DAY

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March 25, 1306:

Robert the Bruce crowned King of Scotland.

Robert I (popularly known as Robert the Bruce) was King of Scots from March 25,1306 until his death in 1329. Robert led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully during his reign to restore Scotland to an independent kingdom and is regarded in Scotland as a national hero.

Six weeks before he seized the Scottish crown in March 1306, Robert the Bruce murdered his closest political rival. He’d arranged to meet longtime opponent John “the Red” Comyn at a priory in Dumfries in southern Scotland, ostensibly to discuss “certain business touching them both,” but quickly changed tactics, accused Comyn of treachery and struck him down. As Comyn lay bleeding at the foot of the shrine, Bruce retreated, giving the friars a chance to tend to the fallen man’s wounds. But he then learned his target was still alive and sent several men back to finish the bloody task. As Walter of Guisborough wrote around 1308, when Comyn “had confessed and was truly repentant, by the tyrant's order he was dragged out of the vestry and killed on the steps of the high altar.”

With the support of Scottish barons Robert declared himself king, being crowned inaugurated at Scone Abbey on 25 March 1306. His position was precarious – there were two defeats to an English army at Methven and to a Scottish army led by John Macdougall. Robert was obliged to flee to Rathlin Island on the coast of Ireland. The English, unable to get their hands on the king, went for the next best thing and hunted down his family. Three of Robert's brothers were executed, and his sister Mary was kept in an iron cage dangling from the walls of Roxburgh Castle, a fate she suffered for four years.

Fighting back, Robert picked off English-held castles one by one (and destroyed them to prevent reuse by the enemy). He also made regular and lucrative raids into northern England seemingly at will. At the Bottle of Bannockburn (1314) Robert’s outnumbered troops defeated the English army, the English king having to flee for his life. Robert won a one-on-one fight with Henry de Bohun - Robert split his opponent's head with a mighty blow of his battle-axe.

Peace was concluded between Scotland and England with the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton in 1328, by which Edward III renounced all claims to sovereignty over Scotland.

19th century engraving showing what Robert the Bruce might have looked like.

By the way:

The meaning of the name Bruce is “woods” or “thicket.” It is derived from the Celtic language and was brought to Scotland by the Normans. Robert the Bruce was called by that name because of his family’s association with a Norman castle known as Bruis or Brix. The first Robert de Bruce came to England with William the Conqueror. In Scottish Gaelic, Bruce is known as Brùs and is a Lowlands Scottish clan. It was a royal house in the 14th century and produced two kings of Scotland, Robert the Bruce and David II of Scotland.

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